North Korea Missile Launches Detected

[Unchainme]

July 4, 2006 — North Korea launched three missiles today, including one believed to be the long-range Taepodong-2, which is believed to be capable of reaching U.S. soil, sources told ABC News.

The first two missiles launched appeared to be short- or mid-range missiles, but it appeared that the third — which broke up shortly after it launched — was a longer range missile, sources said.

White House spokesman Tony Snow said North Korea had launched three missiles, but he could not confirm whether the Taepodong-2 was among the weapons tested.

The launches of the first two missiles were detected by NORAD — the North American Aerospace Defense Command — sources told ABC News.

The first launch occurred around 2:30 p.m. ET, and the second came at around 3 p.m., the sources said.

Both of those launches were tracked and determined completely incapable of coming anywhere close to the United States, though one source told ABC News the government could not say where the missiles had landed.

A Japanese government official said North Korea seemed to launched three missiles, the first two a half-hour apart and the third coming an hour later, and all three landed in the Sea of Japan.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=2153034

[jcook11]

WE'RE ALL GONNA FUCKING DIE
AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

[blueturk]

Originally posted by jcook11
WE'RE ALL GONNA FUCKING DIE
AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

No we're not! We got Saddam! That's all that matters!

[LoungeMachine]

Originally posted by frets5150
North Korea Test-Launches Multiple Missiles
By ERIC TALMADGE, AP
TOKYO (July 4) - A defiant North Korea test-fired a long-range missile Wednesday that may be capable of reaching America, but it failed seconds after launch, officials said. The North also tested five shorter range missiles in an exercise the White House called "provocative" but not an immediate threat.

Ignoring stern U.S. and Japanese warnings, the isolated communist nation carried out the audacious military tests even as the U.S. celebrated the Fourth of July and launched the space shuttle.

None of the missiles made it as far as Japan, all crashing into the Sea of Japan separating the island from the Korean Peninsula, officials said.

"We do consider it provocative behavior," U.S. National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley said.

Both Japan and South Korea protested. Japan called for an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting. South Korea said the tests would further deepen its neighbor's international isolation.

"We will take stern measures," said chief Japanese government spokesman Shinzo Abe, adding that economic sanctions were a possibility. He said the launch violated a longstanding moratorium, and that Tokyo was not given prior notification by Pyongyang.

The U.S. administration reacted quickly but made it clear that its response would not involve military action.

President Bush consulted with Hadley, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. The State Department said Rice conferred with her counterparts from China, Japan, South Korea and Russia.

"It wasn't that he (the president) was surprised because we've seen this coming for a while," Hadley said. "I think his instinct is that this just shows the defiance of the international community by North Korea."

He said the long-range missile was the Taepodong-2, which failed 35 seconds after launch. Experts believe the missile - North Korea's most advanced with a range of up to 9,320 miles - could reach the United States with a light payload.

The State Department said the smaller missiles includes Scuds, which could target South Korea, and Rodongs, which has a range of about 620 miles and could target Japan.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported as many as 10 missiles may have been launched, but officials could not confirm that.

The launch came after weeks of speculation that the North was preparing to test the Taepodong-2 from a site on its northeast coast. U.S. and Japanese officials said six missiles were fired in all, launched over a four-hour period beginning about 3:30 a.m. Wednesday (2:30 p.m. Tuesday EDT).

Meanwhile, the North American Aerospace Defense Command - which monitors the skies for threats to North American security - went on heightened alert, said NORAD spokesman Michael Kucharek.

"The safety of our people and resources is our top priority," Kucharek said.

If the timing is correct, the North Korean missiles were launched within minutes of Tuesday's liftoff of Discovery, which blasted into orbit from Cape Canaveral in the first U.S. space shuttle launch in a year.

Hadley suggested the tests might have been an attempt to grab the international spotlight.

"It's very difficult to know what the North Koreans think they are doing this for," Hadley said. "Obviously, it is a bit of an effort to get attention, perhaps because so much attention has been focused on the Iranians."

North Korea's missile program is based on Scud technology provided by the former Soviet Union or Egypt, according to American and South Korean officials. North Korea started its Rodong-1 missile project in the late 1980s and test-fired the missile for the first time in 1993.

North Korea had observed a moratorium on long-range missile launches since 1999. It shocked the world in 1998 by firing a Taepodong missile over Japan and into the Pacific Ocean.

On Monday, the North's main news agency quoted an unidentified newspaper analyst as saying Pyongyang was prepared to answer a U.S. military attack with "a relentless annihilating strike and a nuclear war."

The Bush administration responded by saying while it had no intention of attacking, it was determined to protect the United States if North Korea launched a long-range missile.

On Monday, Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns warned North Korea against firing the missile and urged the communist country to return to six-nation talks on its nuclear program.

The six-party talks, suspended by North Korea, involved negotiations by the United States, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia with Pyongyang over the country's nuclear program.

The United States and its allies South Korea and Japan have taken quick steps over the past week to strengthen their missile defenses. Washington and Tokyo are working on a joint missile-defense shield, and South Korea is considering the purchase of American SM-2 defensive missiles for its destroyers.

The U.S. and North Korea have been in a standoff over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program since 2002. The North claims to have produced nuclear weapons, but that claim has not been publicly verified by outside analysts.

While public information on North Korea's military capabilities is murky, experts doubt that the regime has managed to develop a nuclear warhead small enough to mount on its long-range missiles.

Nonetheless, Lt. Gen. Michael Maples, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told U.S. lawmakers last week that officials took the potential launch reports seriously and were looking at the full range of capabilities possessed by North Korea.

AP reporters Larry Margasak and Ann Gearan in Washington and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.


07/04/06 22:18 EDT

[Big Train]

The thing fell out of the sky, as did the two Scuds..

[Panamark]

Fuckers could probably reach us.. (Australia)

[Panamark]

If they ever progress past rubber band launched missiles..

[LoungeMachine]

Can't fathom a reason anyone would want to ever nuke Australia......




Except maybe revenge for those Crocodile Dundee movies.

[LoungeMachine]

Originally posted by jcook11
WE'RE ALL GONNA FUCKING DIE
AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

You first.

[Big Train]

Economy must be getting really bad in Korea if Kim is cranking the Anti-America deal up to warp speed.

[Panamark]

Originally posted by LoungeMachine
Can't fathom a reason anyone would want to ever nuke Australia......

A lot of Muslims and Arabs dont like us anymore coz we
joined up with you guys...

Isnt PongPong (or whatever his fookin name is) a muslim ??

[LoungeMachine]

Doubt Kim Jong Il is muslim, but I could be wrong.


Paul Hogan might be, though

[jcook11]

Originally posted by LoungeMachine
You first.

You're really on tonight there Kobayashi

[LoungeMachine]

Originally posted by Panamark
A lot of Muslims and Arabs dont like us anymore coz we
joined up with you guys...

For the record.....by "you guys", you are refering to the fascist Neo-Con Administration that came into power via a coup in 2000, and has continued this Country's slide into hell.

A Majority of us Yanks are opposed to this administration and it's foreign policies.

[Panamark]

Originally posted by LoungeMachine
For the record.....by "you guys", you are refering to the fascist Neo-Con Administration that came into power via a coup in 2000, and has continued this Country's slide into hell.

A Majority of us Yanks are opposed to this administration and it's foreign policies.

Im referring to the armies of people that gave a fuck about 9/11